The first commandment for rookie politicians is to learn your constituencies.
The second is to preside over them, with balance, with relative equality, without favor toward the have-nots or the haves.
The third lesson for freshmen is compassion.
They are taught if they imbibe these three concepts, they can remain in office almost as long as they wish.
Time for a refresher, boys and girls.
Two weeks and two days ago, a young woman stepped before the City Council and informed them of two unexpected deaths in separate apartment buildings after the deceased were told their rents would be hiked around 100 percent.
I was only being technically attentive until she mentioned the sudden demise of two renters.
Perhaps their deaths were related to family matters we don’t yet know about. Perhaps not. Shock and stress may have been the main contributors.
Shouldn’t responsible public stewards – the five members of the City Council – be minimally curious about what instantly killed two residents of the community they govern?
Compassion must still be on summer vacation.
The spectre of rent control – which Council members seem to regard as analogous to cleaning up trash at the side of the road – was raised and dismissed faster than I could sign up as a gloves model.
They Died. They Are Still Dead.
After speaking with all five, I have not heard more than cursory expressions of sympathy for the two deceased persons.
Four of the five have voiced powerful concern about how rent control would place binding handcuffs on property owners – without even a fleeting nod to burdened tenants.
After all, unlike Santa Monica, renters comprise fewer than half of the Culver City voting public. So what is to worry about? They can’t hurt the Council.
However, landowners inhale and exhale genuine influence.
Numerically, they are a much smaller collective – but they are contributors who affect city policies. They are the Council’s single dominant constituency.
The callous message to renters: If you can’t afford the new rates, move. Don’t have the money? Borrow.
Isn’t a thoughtful, sensitive, compassionate, creative form of rent control worth a serious look when the health and welfare of a goodly number of vulnerable residents is at stake?
It is as I told a lady the other day when she noted that the showcase apartment building rising on Irving Place, across from the School District headquarters, has posted a $4875 monthly rental rate:
A sucker is born every minute who will pay it.
Advice to ordinary, priced-out Culver City renters: Here is a map for Santa Monica. Don’t slam the door.
